Guidance
by Twilight Joltik
Summary: Zelda expected summer break to be pretty boring, save for maybe the mysterious guy from out of town staying at her house. But, instead, she gets some mysterious powers, so it turns out she has to save the world and find other magical girls in order to do so. Magical Girl AU, pairings tbd.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN- I'm not good at titles or summaries so those are probably gonna change at some point.**_

_**Anyways, hi, I'm Joltik, and I haven't written a Smash Bros fic in years. I wrote a really long, kind of crappy magical girl fic when I was in junior high, and as a lover of both magical girls and Nintendo, I've long since felt a need to repent for this by writing a less bad Smash Bros Magical Girl Fic. Since I've since grown out of my edgy tween phase and learned more about Nintendo things that aren't Pokemon, Zelda, or Fire Emblem Awakening, and since Joker just came out and I adore Persona 5, now's as good a time as ever.**_

_**So, here goes.**_

* * *

When told that a family friend's son would be staying with them over the summer, Zelda had gotten pretty excited. It would be wonderful to have a new friend to spend time with instead of praying someone would talk to her at the library. This Link guy was from out of town, and around her age, so they could find tons to talk about, surely!

And yet, it had been a week and he hadn't spoken to her once. At first she'd assumed he was shy, until she tried to ask him why he was staying with them, and was pulled aside and given strict instructions by her father to not ask him that. By that point, she started worrying. Had something bad happened to him? Was he going to be alright?

After that, she became determined to befriend him. No matter what had happened to him, it was pretty clear he needed a friend, so she was more than happy to take that role! So, she decided to start with a nice gesture that would make him comfortable: a housewarming cake!

A few cookbooks and failed attempts later, she wound up with an acceptable carrot cake, and went to his door with a slice on a plate. She felt a bit nervous as she knocked- what if he was allergic to carrots? She hadn't thought to ask about allergies! Or what if he didn't like sweets, or-

The door swung open before she could panic properly. Link was still in pajamas, but didn't look like he'd slept at all judging by the dark circles under his eyes.

"Um," she started hesitantly, holding out the carrot cake. "I, uh, wanted to make you feel more welcome here! So I made you a cake! There's more in the kitchen… oh! And if you don't like carrot cake, I can make a different kind! Sorry, I really should have asked-"

A quiet voice caught her off guard, and she was a bit startled to realize it came from Link. "You made this… for me?"

"I- I did!" she stuttered out. "I-is it alright?"

He took the plate from her. "It is," he mumbled. "I just don't understand… did your father make you?"

"No!" she quickly assured him. "Of course not! I just wanted to be nice, you know?"

He smiled slightly. "Weird, I was expecting you to not like me much. I mean, I wouldn't be this nice to a total stranger barging in on my house."

"Why not?" Zelda questioned. "I mean, you seem nice enough! Besides, if something's out of your control, it's best to make the most of it!"

For a solid thirty seconds, he stared at her like she'd just said she was a space alien. After a moment, he took a deep breath and looked away. "That's very… optimistic of you. Uh…"

Hastily, he shoved a forkful of her carrot cake in his mouth. "Th-this is really good!" he exclaimed after a minute. "Thanks, um, what was your name again?"

"Zelda."

He nodded. "Zelda, right. Sorry, I'm just bad at names. Anyways, you wanna go get some and eat in the kitchen? You should try this."

"Uh, sure!" She was really glad Link was alright with sharing; she really liked carrot cake! Plus, she was finally getting him out of his room!

Once she got her cake, she attempted more conversation, while trying to avoid any of the sore spots her father had warned her about. Asking where he was from might be a sore spot, so maybe something more surface level.

"Um, so, do you have any hobbies?", she questioned.

He shrugged and took another bite of cake. "I mean, nothing unusual. I like cooking, I guess. And reading."

"Oh, I like reading too!" Zelda exclaimed. Maybe not the deepest, most unusual connection, but it was her favorite hobby, so that was something! "There's a really great library in town! We should go there sometime!"

"Uh… sure," Link agreed. "I mean, I should probably get dressed first."

"I didn't mean today!" Zelda quickly corrected, frantically waving her hands. "I mean, unless you want to today, that's fine! But we don't have to go today!"

Again, he just shrugged. "I mean, I don't have any plans today, might as well."

"A-alright!"

They quickly finished the cake, and as Link went to put actual clothes on, Zelda gathered up the books she had checked out. She'd tried the first few volumes of a manga series she'd heard about, and while they were cute, they didn't catch her interest much, so she wouldn't be continuing the series. Maybe she'd look at nonfiction again and see if there was anything interesting there…

When he came out of his room, with actual clothes on, Link gave her a concerned look. "That's an awfully big bag. Can you carry that all?"

"Course I can!" she assured him. "It's just the books I checked out yesterday!" She opened the front door. "Shall we?"

He nodded and they headed out. "Yesterday…", he mused, glancing at her book bag again. "Well, uh, guess you meant it when you said you really liked reading, huh?"

"Well, you know, it's summer and I don't have anything better to do," she explained. "Besides, it was just some cookbooks and manga, nothing too heavy!"

"Whatever you say." Link glanced around. "How far is this place, anyways? Are we going to the bus stop or something?"

"Huh? No, it's just a mile away! Not far at all!"

"And that's not far?" Link questioned.

"No?" Zelda wondered if it would be bad to ask if he was from a big city. "Um… is that far where you're from?" There, that sounded better!

As he seemed prone to doing, he just shrugged. "We'd usually drive places."

"Well, dad took the car to work, so can't really do that," Zelda mumbled. "I'm really sorry if this is too far for you! We can go another time if you'd rather!"

"It's fine," he assured her. "Just, uh, can we go a bit slower? I get kinda winded easily."

She slowed her pace. "Of course!" Was this one of those things she wasn't supposed to ask about? All of this piqued her curiosity, but she didn't want to make Link uncomfortable…

"So, Link! Um… it's a nice day out!"

He glanced over at her. "You don't have to think of things to talk about if you don't want to. I don't mind quiet."

A lump formed in her throat. Had he meant that as "shut up" or "don't worry", or as something else all together? Whichever it meant, she just really hoped he wasn't mad. She mumbled an "okay" and slipped into silence, eyes wandering along the shop windows they passed.

After a moment, she realized Link had fallen behind, so she turned around to see him looking in the window of an antique shop, at a rusted machine of some sort- looked almost like an old pot that had grown legs. Once Link noticed Zelda looking at him, he looked away with a nervous chuckle. "Uh… sorry, just… stuff like this is interesting to me. Machinery and all that… Kinda just mentioned the not weird things when you asked me earlier…"

"That isn't weird at all!" Zelda exclaimed. "We should go in! I have some pocket money if you want to get something!"

"I- I wouldn't want to ask that of you…" He mumbled as Zelda held the door open for him. In resignation, he entered the shop, adding a "well if you insist" and started looking at the machine in the window closer. Meanwhile, Zelda found herself looking at some old jewelry behind a glass display case. A tarnished gold ring caught her eye, with strange symbols in a language she didn't recognize written on it.

As she leaned in closer, she heard a voice she didn't recognize. "Want to look at anything closer?"

She jumped a bit, startled. When she looked up, she saw a girl behind the counter, glancing at her as she polished up an old knife. "Um, I was just curious about that ring there!" Zelda explained, pointing to the weird ring. "Do you know what it says, miss, um…" She looked at her nametag. "Fiora?"

Fiora shook her head. "Nah, not too knowledgeable about stuff like that. Shulk would probably know something, but he's not in today. You can come back in tomorrow if you want and ask him."

"Hm, maybe… Could I have a closer look at it first?" Fiora unlocked the case, and Zelda picked the ring up carefully, looking at the runes on it. "They look kind of familiar… Well, I was headed to the library anyways! Could I go ahead and buy it now, I wanna try and decode it myself."

"Knock yourself out," Fiora said, going to the cash register. "That'll be ten bucks, do you want a bag?"

She dug in her bag for a "I can wear it out- oh, right! Hey Link!"

Her new friend looked up from the machine. "Yeah?"

"You wanna get that thing?"

He looked back at the machine and sighed. "I mean, I do, but how exactly would we get it back to the house!"

"Oh, we can help with that!" Fiora piped up. "My brother should be back from lunch break any minute, I'll have him help you guys."

"Really?" Link questioned. "Is that something you usually do?"

Fiora rolled her eyes. "No, but if I have to hear Shulk try to explain to me how that thing works one more time, I'm gonna blow a fuse. So I'll bring it over there myself if it gets rid of the thing."

Link smiled slightly. "Thank you, miss. Zelda, do you want to go on to the library? I'll catch up with you."

"But you don't know how to get there!" Zelda protested.

"I'll take him myself," Fiora volunteered. "Or make Dunban do it or whatever."

"Oh, alright! Thank you!" Zelda wasn't sure why, but she was incredibly eager to go ahead and learn more about that ring. Something about it was just entrancing! So, she paid for it and the machine and rushed out the door.

As she slipped the ring on her finger, she admired it a bit more. It was actually quite pretty, despite the tarnish. Maybe she could get something to polish it up! That might help with the runes, should they prove undecipherable.

A voice suddenly interrupted her musings- "_Huh? Oh, finally! That took forever!_"

She looked around frantically for the source. Was Link behind her? Or someone else? She didn't see anyone but a few passerbys paying her no mind.

"Who's there?", she asked softly.

The unknown voice huffed. "_Aww, seriously? Do I gotta explain everything? I thought I felt some magic in you!_"

"Magic? Excuse me?" Her chest tightened. Was this a prank? "Where is this coming from?"

"_Um… maybe it would be better if you sat down?_" the voice suggested. "_Uh, here!_"

Without any motion of her own, Zelda found herself stumbling towards a bench, sitting down roughly. "H-huh?" Her heart was racing. "What-?"

"_Sorry, sorry!_" the voice apologized. "_I know people don't like it when I do that, but it's faster sometimes! I'll try not to do it again, alright? Just, uh, close your eyes! I'll try to explain stuff better there!_"

"You'd better, whoever you are," Zelda mumbled as she closed her eyes.

After a moment, the blackness gave way to a strange, glowing stage, seemingly made of blue crystal. A boy, a bit younger than her, maybe, stood in front of her, wings stretching behind him.

"Hello there!" The angel greeted, his voice the same as the strange one she'd heard a moment before. "I'm Pit, and you just found the ring I'm trapped in!"


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN- Sorry this took a while to get out, had finals and all that. But, I'm still super excited about this project, and especially about all the lovely feedback I've been getting on it! I have a lot planned for this, so I really hope everyone enjoys it!_**

* * *

Zelda stared blankly at this "angel" in front of her, in this weird vision. "Trapped? In my ring?"

He nodded. "Yep!"

"Do you care to elaborate?" Zelda asked.

"Oh, uh, right, sorry! I guess you wouldn't know about Palutena, huh?"

Palutena… the word sounded vaguely familiar, like something she'd read somewhere once. "It sounds familiar, but I can't say I know exactly what it is."

"Aww, well, that's okay! You're from the Mortal Realm, after all!"

"Mortal Realm? I beg your pardon?" Something about the way he said that made her feel somewhat offended.

"Oh, is that not what you guys call it?" Pit questioned. "Oh, yeah, it's like, Ert or something, right?"

"Earth," Zelda corrected.

The angel nodded. "Right, right! Earth. Anyways, I'm from the Light Realm! It's… well, I dunno how to say where it is in relation to here. It's somewhere else, let's leave it at that!"

"Like another dimension?"

"That sounds right!" Pit agreed. "Anyways, I'm the messenger of the Queen of the Light Realm, the Goddess Palutena!"

"She's… both Goddess and Queen?" Zelda questioned. "How is she both?"

Pit pouted. "Well if you were a Queen, you'd still be the Human Zelda and a Queen, right?"

"I suppose so- wait, how do you know my name?" She frowned a bit. Was this suspicious?

It seemed Pit noticed her trepidation, as he gulped. "I- I heard that guy you were with call you that! Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I was just alone in there for sooooo long, I wanted to listen to everything!"

"Oh… so you can hear things from in the ring?"

"Only if someone's touching it," Pit elaborated. "Which like, no one's done in ages, so it's been a while. Last time was… oh, must have been that Magnus guy? He tried to help me, but…"

Pit trailed off, looking a bit upset. "Uh, well, anyways! I- I kinda need some help getting home? See, when I got sealed in that ring, Palutena and the Light Realm were under attack! It's probably been a long time, b-but I have to know what happened! I need to get back to her!"

"How long ago did you get sealed away, exactly?", Zelda questioned.

Pausing, Pit squinted his eyes shut, as if trying to concentrate. "Uh… I dunno… It's been a while… Probably more than a year?"

"Then, surely whatever happened is long over, right?"

"I… I know…" Pit mumbled. "She would have looked for me by now if it'd ended up well… But, I can't just stay here forever, never knowing for sure! Besides, I don't think anyone but her or Queen Bayonetta would know how to put me back in my body!"

"Queen Bayonetta?" Zelda repeated. "Who's that? Would that be someone who'd more likely still be alive?"

Pit rushed up to her as if about to hug her, but phased through her instead. "Whoa- oh, right, Spirit Realm, oops! But you're a genius! We've just gotta find Queen Bayonetta!"

Zelda laughed awkwardly. "That's great and all, but I still don't know who that is?"

"Oh, right! She's the queen of the Dark Realm!" he explained. "She's the strongest witch out there, and her magic's as strong as Palutena's! I mean, she's not too big on angels usually, but she's good friends with Palutena, so she'll definitely help me!"

"Well, that's good," Zelda conceded. "But, how exactly would I get you there?"

"Just find a portal!" Pit exclaimed, as if it was simple. "Just cast it and- oh, right. Mortal Realm. Uh, well… Plenty of people from the Light and Dark Realms travel here for fun! Find one of them and hitch a ride!"

"Alright… how would one do that?"

Pit beamed. "I have just the thing! Palutena gave me permission to give her blessings to people if need be, and it just so happens that one of her blessings is-"

He closed his eyes and held his hands in front of him, the air in front of him shimmering with a gentle blue hue. Zelda felt a weight around her neck, and looked down to see a bright, brassy compass on a chain, hanging down onto her chest. She tugged it away to look at it closer, and saw the needle wobbling every which way wildly, no matter how steady she held it.

"A compass? But what is it for?" Zelda questioned. "It must be some sort of magical object, right?"

"It sure is!" Pit exclaimed. "It's the Blessing of Guidance! It can allow mortals to use some magic, and that particular Blessing lets you locate other sources of magic with that compass!"

"Oh? That's helpful! Wait, but you gave it to me? How much will that help you?"

"I mean… I kinda don't have a choice but to rely on you," Pit admitted. "I'm sorry to spring this on you but, please, can you help me find someone who can get me back home?"

Logically, Zelda should refuse. This wasn't any of her business, and it would almost certainly be incredibly unsafe. But, Pit was looking at her with puppy dog eyes, not to mention she was very much interested in learning more about this magic stuff.

"Sure," she conceded. "I'll do my best to help, alright? But, I can't make any promises. I don't know the first thing about any of this, and I can't guarantee that I'll be much help."

He was still beaming, and started to rush to hug her again before stopping himself. "Oh, thank you so much! I promise I'll pay you back somehow, alright?"

"It's no problem," Zelda assured him. "Besides, it's not often you-"

The strange, glowing stage around her suddenly vanished, replaced with the view from the bench she'd sat down at. "H-huh?"

She looked up. Link was there, looking at her with concern. "Oh, good… you're awake… I was worried…"

"O-oh! Sorry!" she stuttered out, unsure what else to say. She couldn't just tell him all she'd just seen, right? "Uh, I just… must have been sleepy, that's all!"

He frowned. "Do you want to go home? We can go to the library another day."

"N-no!" The library was probably the best place to research magic, right? So she needed to go right away! "I'm just fine, I just didn't sleep well last night, that's all!"

Though Link looked suspicious, he shrugged as she got to her feet. "Alright. I guess we can go together, then."

"R-right! Together! It's not much farther!" She rushed ahead a bit, hoping to maybe divert suspicions.

Link cast a glance at her and raised an eyebrow. "That compass… you weren't wearing that before," he noted.

"Uh…" Shoot, what could she say? "I… bought it at the shop!"

"Oh. Didn't see that," Link muttered. "It's cool."

"Th-thank you! I thought so too!" She looked at it a bit closer, noticing similar runes to the ones on Pit's ring. "I saw it had the same runes as the ring, so I got it!"

Nodding, Link seemingly accepted her answer. "Makes sense. Probably easier to decode something with more samples."

"Mmhm!" she readily agreed. "So, er… How did the machine thing go?"

"It went fine," Link reported. "Fiora and her brother helped me get it to the house. It seems pretty interesting, but I think I'll ask that other guy who works there about it tomorrow. They said he knows a lot about it."

A guy who knew a lot about weird antique stuff and worked at the store she'd gotten the ring at, huh? Sounded like a decent source. "Oh, that's cool! I'll go with you!" she volunteered.

"Huh? But we'll just be talking about machines and stuff," Link countered. "Nothing interesting. We'd bore you."

"There's nothing boring about learning!" Zelda exclaimed. "Even if it's not something I know about yet, it's something my friend likes, so I wanna know more about it!"

That was a good reason, right? It wasn't really a lie, even, just not the whole truth. And yet, it seemed to leave Link confused. "Your… friend? Which friend?"

"You?"

Link turned away, making an odd sound. "I- I'm your friend… uh, yeah, right. Guess I blanked for a second, sorry."

Zelda smiled. "It's no problem, friend!" she teased. "There's no reason for my friend Link to feel embarrassed!"

He buried his face in his hands. "Why do I feel like I've made a huge mistake, agreeing to be your friend?"

"Aww, don't talk like that! " She frowned, dropping the joking tone. "I'll stop teasing you, I'm sorry!"

"I-it's fine!" Link assured her. "It's just new, that's all. Not used to friendly jokes like that."

He sounded almost bitter as he said that, and Zelda's stomach churned. "O-oh! Well, I promise, all jokes I make will be friendly!"

"...thanks," Link mumbled.

A voice interrupted Zelda before she could say anything. "Geeze, what's his problem?"

She panicked for a split second before remembering it was just Pit. She couldn't really talk out loud with him at the moment, so she just shook her head to try to tell him to drop it.

"Was that mean?" Pit questioned. "It was mean, wasn't it? Uh, sorry! Anyways, er, guess you can't really talk right now, huh? I'll shut up, then!"

She nodded, the best way she could think to non-verbally tell him to be quiet right now. She'd have to figure out a better way to do this whole talking to a voice inside her ring thing.

"Is this the library?" Link questioned, much to her relief. She looked up and let out a sigh of relief. There it was- it wasn't huge or fancy, but it was practically home.

"Mmhm! Come on, let's go in! There's a really great little spot for reading in here I can show you!"

"Well, we need books first, right?"

Zelda nodded. "Let me know if you need help finding anything! Oh, and you can check out whatever you need to on my card!"

"Thank you," Link said as he held the front door open for her. "Um, I'll go look for books. We can meet back up here?"

"That sounds good!" she agreed, before making a beeline straight to the nonfiction section. Now, to find the books about language, or maybe cryptology.

After a moment, she found a fair few books about decoding and ancient scripts, with a few about mythology for good measure! Her arms were totally full, to the point she could barely see as she hobbled back to the front desk. So, it wasn't very surprising when she ended up running into someone.

"O-oh! Sorry!" she exclaimed, craning her neck to see who she'd bumped into. They had short, black hair that almost looked blue in the light, and wore thick glasses. Oddly enough, she didn't recognize them at all, despite looking around her age.

They looked a bit flustered, looking away and down at the ground. "No, it was my bad," they stuttered. "Do you need help carrying those?"

"Oh, I've got it!", she assured them. "Do you live in this town? I've never seen you at the high school…"

"I- I just moved here!", they exclaimed. "S-so you wouldn't have seen me there."

She offered a kind smile. They seemed shy; understandable with having just moved to a new town! "That's great! Smashville is a lovely place, so I'm sure you'll love it here!" she assured them. "Please, let me know if you need any help settling in or finding anything!"

"Uh, thank you. I- I'll be sure to do that," they stuttered. "Uh, wh-what's your name?"

"Zelda! And yours?"

"Lu- uh, Luca. It's Luca," they stuttered. "I, um, I'll see you around. I should get going."

Luca rushed past her without another word, and Zelda smiled. They seemed nice, maybe they'd run into each other again! She really did hope they would, they seemed shy, but really cute…

"Zelda! Zelda, are you there?" Pit questioned a bit too loudly.

No one was around, so she answered him softly. "I am, why do you ask?"

"Your compass!"

Zelda looked down to see a bright glow coming from it, almost blinding her. "What-?"

Opening it up, a glowing arrow pointed ahead, to where Luca had been standing just a moment earlier.

* * *

**_AN- uh did I mention there are gonna be a lot of LGBTQ characters? Cause there's definitely gonna be a lot of queer characters here. _**


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